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SparkFun Ludus Protoshield Wireless
The SparkFun Ludus ProtoShield Wireless is a motor driver shield for your Arduino that is designed to make connecting motors, sensors and other components to your Arduino-based project as fast and easy as possible. The heart of the Ludus ProtoShield Wireless is the Toshiba TB6612FNG H-Bridge Motor Driver. This allows the ProtoShield to control two DC motors at once, both CW and CCW, and brake electronically. The TB6612FNG H-Bridge Driver is rated up to 1.2A per channel at 13V, which means it will drive a fair variety of hobby motors ranging in power. Each of the GPIO pins is broken out on a “servo-style” header field with PWR and GND to allow you to easily connect devices using a 3-pin servo cable.
When powered using the barrel jack connector, the PWR rail can even be switched between 5V (from the Arduino’s voltage regulator) and Vin using the onboard slide switches. This feature makes the SparkFun Ludus ProtoShield ideal if you are connecting multiple servos and need more than 5V to your robotics project!
This specific Ludus ProtoShield also includes an I2C pin-out and a built-in XBee socket, making the Ludus ProtoShield Wireless perfect for setting up an XBee-based remote control. Simply plug an XBee module into the socket on the shield, and you have the control system for a simple remote control rover or small autonomous robots!
The SparkFun Ludus ProtoShield Wireless was developed by SparkFun Education to help teach any interested individual the dynamics of wireless motor control through the Arduino IDE, and it was lovingly named after our very own mascot.
- TB6612FNG H-Bridge Driver
- XBee Socket
- I2C Header
- Arduino R3 Layout
- Schematic
- Eagle Files
- Hookup Guide
- Datasheet (TB6612FNG)
- GitHub (Design Files & Example Code)
SparkFun Ludus Protoshield Wireless Product Help and Resources
Wireless Motor Driver Shield Hookup Guide
August 17, 2017
Get started with the SparkFun Wireless Motor Driver Shield!
Core Skill: Soldering
This skill defines how difficult the soldering is on a particular product. It might be a couple simple solder joints, or require special reflow tools.
Skill Level: Noob - Some basic soldering is required, but it is limited to a just a few pins, basic through-hole soldering, and couple (if any) polarized components. A basic soldering iron is all you should need.
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Core Skill: Robotics
This skill concerns mechanical and robotics knowledge. You may need to know how mechanical parts interact, how motors work, or how to use motor drivers and controllers.
Skill Level: Rookie - You will be required to know some basics about motors, basic motor drivers and how simple robotic motion can be accomplished.
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Core Skill: Programming
If a board needs code or communicates somehow, you're going to need to know how to program or interface with it. The programming skill is all about communication and code.
Skill Level: Rookie - You will need a better fundamental understand of what code is, and how it works. You will be using beginner-level software and development tools like Arduino. You will be dealing directly with code, but numerous examples and libraries are available. Sensors or shields will communicate with serial or TTL.
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Core Skill: Electrical Prototyping
If it requires power, you need to know how much, what all the pins do, and how to hook it up. You may need to reference datasheets, schematics, and know the ins and outs of electronics.
Skill Level: Rookie - You may be required to know a bit more about the component, such as orientation, or how to hook it up, in addition to power requirements. You will need to understand polarized components.
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Can i connect 5 servo using this shield?
Thank you
i was wondering, would this work with the most recent Photon redshield? that looks cool and the pinouts look compatible... just double-checking w the experts.
It'll just about work with the Photon RedBoard. Everything on the motor driver lines up except the PWM signal on D6, which controls speed on the B motor. You could, potentially, re-wire D6 on the shield to an unused PWM Photon RedBoard pin -- re-wiring it to D10 or D11 would work.
If you want to use an XBee with it, make sure you set the UART switch to HW_SER to use the Photon's hardware serial port.
Is one of these shields coming for the Mega?
We currently do not have any plans to design / build a Mega version of this shield, but if there is enough interest, we can bring this up in our next new product proposal discussions. Please let us know if this is something you think would benefit you as well as other builders / makers / hackers out there!